Archive record · Brewery
Carling Brewery
London, Ontario, Canada
- Founded
- 1843
- Closed
- 1936
- Archive ID
- TB-Z63KBTQ9
- Last checked
- 2026-10-09
Who owns this brewery?
The direct owner is recorded. No company is held above it.
- Carling BreweryThis brewery
- Molson Coors Beverage CompanyConglomerate
From the record
Summary
Now Molson Coors CORRECTED 2026-09-24: this is the London, Ontario BREWERY (1843-1936, demolished 1941), which had been carried as ACTIVE from 1840 because the Carling brand lives on under Molson Coors. Brand and plant are different kinds of thing. A Carling Breweries Limited COMPANY record (1924-, through Canadian Breweries, Carling O'Keefe and Molson) is the right home for the brand's later life and does not exist yet. Ann Street versus a 'Piccadilly and Talbot' site named in a search summary: unresolved, the latter unconfirmed.
A summary written during research. The sourced facts are in the sections below.
Tally’s Take
Thomas Carling, a Yorkshire farmer turned soldier, started brewing in London, Ontario in 1840 — seven years before Labatt set up in the same town, which made one small Ontario city the birthplace of both. Carling Black Label went on to become one of the most widely brewed beer brands in the world, licensed across continents, while the company itself dissolved through Carling O'Keefe into Molson. A global brand with almost nothing left of the brewery that made it.
The Museum
Timeline
- 1840Founded
Thomas Carling began commercial brewing operations in London, Ontario.
- 1843Thomas Carling opens a brewery in London
"In 1843 their father opened a brewery in London, producing a beer based on a recipe from his native Yorkshire" (Dictionary of Canadian Biography). The commonly repeated 1840 is not supported by the DCB or the London Public Library and is kept here only as the popular date. First site: Waterloo Street, opposite the garrison (LPL).
- 1849Passed to William and John Carling
"in 1849 Thomas Carling passed the firm on to his sons William and John" — John later Sir John Carling, the politician.
- 1879Fire; William Carling dies
"In February 1879 this state-of-the-art structure burned down, and William died of pneumonia contracted while fighting the blaze." Rebuilt on Ann Street near the Thames (LPL).
- 1882Carling Brewing and Malting Company of London Limited
"In 1882 more investors were brought into the enterprise, which became a joint-stock corporation" (DCB); the Canadian Encyclopedia gives 1883. Both kept.
- 1924Carling Breweries Limited
"In 1924, the business became a joint stock company, Carling Breweries Limited" (London Public Library).
- 1927Black & White Lager becomes Black Label
"In 1927, as part of a corporate re-branding under new president J. Innes Carling, the company renamed its Black & White Lager to Black Label" — the Canadian origin of the name, seven years before the Cleveland brewery.
- 1930Merger
Joined the Brewing Corporation of Ontario, later Canadian Breweries Limited, scaling production into a national enterprise.
- 1930Bought by E. P. Taylor
"Taylor negotiated the purchase of Carling Brewing Co.... from the Dominion Bank" later in 1930, after the Brading-Kuntz merger that formed the Brewing Corporation of Ontario.
- 1934Expansion
Expanded cross-border operations with the opening of a production facility in Cleveland, Ohio.
- 1936London brewing ends; production to Waterloo
"closed in 1936 when amalgamated with the Kuntz Brewery of Waterloo" (London Public Library); the Canadian Breweries account has the London operation "shut down in 1935, with production moved to the Kuntz plant". Recorded as 1936 with 1935 kept. The brand went on — Waterloo, Montreal, Toronto, Cleveland, later the UK — and is Molson Coors' today; this record is the London plant.
- 1941Building demolished
The London brewery building "was demolished in 1941. The historical plaque, originally located at the Ann Street site, is now housed at the Ivey Family London Room in the Central Library." What stands on the site: UNKNOWN.
- 1930Bought from the Dominion Bank for $600,000
Pierre Berton (Maclean's, 1 March 1950): control of Carling's "was going cheap". A syndicate had made so much money ($5 million gross in one year) shipping beer to "dry" Detroit that it built the Dominion Square Building in Montreal, which cost so much that it had to mortgage its brewery stock. "The Dominion Bank was glad to sell it to Taylor for $600,000."
The People
Behind the beer
Pioneer Ontario brewing family originating from London.
The Beer Library
Beers
Carling Black Label
Year-RoundAmerican Lager
Launched in Canada and now brewed under licence in more countries than most drinkers realise. In Britain it is a top-selling lager; in South Africa it is a different beer entirely under the same name. Update 24 September 2026: Molson Coors relaunched Black Label across the UK on 16 March 2026 as a 4.7% lager, the name having been dropped there until the late 1990s. In Canada the brand is Molson Coors'; the Canadian shelf listing could not be text-confirmed that day (The Beer Store's product page loads dynamically) and is recorded as unconfirmed, not absent. A viewer wrote "You can still buy Black Label!" on 19 September 2026.
Drank this? Add it to your passport →Red Cap Ale
DiscontinuedAle
Carling's ale flagship by the late 1930s (a La Patrie advertisement of 9 January 1938 names only Red Cap where 1932 ads had it under Carling Amber); brewed at Waterloo for years and, from 1953, at a new Montreal plant built for Black Label and Red Cap. The Carling Red Cap Forever campaign — Terry O'Malley, Vickers & Benson — began on television on 1 July 1967 with an anthem sung at rinks and recesses; "for a time, Red Cap held as much as 40% of the Ontario market" (Brock University's O'Malley exhibit; the agency's figure). It "fared poorly throughout the '70s, under new ownership, and eventually disappeared". About 1994 Molson, which still held the brand, sold the "68-year-old" label and the original recipe to Brick Brewing of Waterloo — which puts the label's origin about 1927, a derivation not a sourced date — and Red Cap was back in Brewers' Retail from the autumn of 1994 with the original brewmaster, Bill Barnes. Brick's own application for RED CAP ALE (filed 1992) was abandoned in 1996. Waterloo Brewing, Brick's successor under Carlsberg Canada, does not list Red Cap on 24 September 2026. When the first run ended and when the revival ended: both UNKNOWN. A viewer wrote "Red Cap was popular"; the archive can now say how popular, and roughly when.
Drank this? Add it to your passport →Follow the money
How it changed hands
1 recorded move- 1843Founded
- 1930Merger
Joined the Brewing Corporation of Ontario, later Canadian Breweries Limited, scaling production into a national enterprise.
Today the chain tops out at Molson Coors Beverage Company.
Show your working
Sources
- controlConfirmed
Carling Brewery is controlled by Founder / family.
Molson Coors — SEC DEF 14A Proxy Statement · U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission · 2026-04
PrimaryHigh reliabilitySource accessed 2026-08-05Claim last checked 2026-08-05
Only the claims above are sourced. Everything else on this page is the archive's own research and has not yet been tied to a document — which is worth knowing rather than hiding.
Straight answers
Common questions about Carling Brewery
- Who owns Carling Brewery?
- Carling Brewery is owned by Molson Coors Beverage Company. Carling Brewery is based in London, Canada.
- Is Carling Brewery still independent?
- No. Carling Brewery is owned by Molson Coors Beverage Company and is no longer independent.
- When was Carling Brewery acquired?
- 1930. Joined the Brewing Corporation of Ontario, later Canadian Breweries Limited, scaling production into a national enterprise.
- When was Carling Brewery founded?
- Carling Brewery was founded in 1843 in London, Canada.
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